Air travelers and TSA screeners at the Albany International Airport Wednesday afternoon January 5, 2011. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

Air travelers and TSA screeners at the Albany International Airport Wednesday afternoon January 5, 2011. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

Photo: John Carl D'Annibale

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A portion of the lower level of A concourse at the Albany International Airport Wednesday afternoon January 5, 2011. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

A portion of the lower level of A concourse at the Albany International Airport Wednesday afternoon January 5, 2011. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

Photo: John Carl D'Annibale

Diverted, not deserted

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Colonie -- During bad weather, it's sometimes possible to see airplanes whose flights originated in Hong Kong, Amsterdam, London or Beijing sitting on the tarmac at Albany International Airport as their pilots wait for conditions to improve at their destination.

In 2009, of the 55 flights that were diverted to Albany, 19 originated outside the United States.

The Albany County Airport Authority monitors the aircraft stranded here, offering to get the planes to a gate after 90 minutes so passengers can get off and stretch. It also provides food.

That's in sharp contrast to the ordeal passengers faced two weeks ago at New York City airports during a blizzard, when some spent hours waiting to disembark.

Until now, however, international travelers couldn't get off at Albany. But that could change.

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In some situations, they could even clear customs and immigration here.

At least part of the procedure was tested a few weeks ago, when a jet from Newfoundland was diverted because of bad weather at Newark, N.J.

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"In this case, we deplaned them," said Andrew J. Wescott, port director for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a unit of the federal Department of Homeland Security, at Albany. "The folks came off. They were not cleared" by customs, however.

Instead, they remained in a secure area, and later reboarded the 50-seat plane to finish their trip to Newark.

But Wescott says his unit has the staffing in Albany that would be required to process large numbers of passengers, if necessary.

And John Delbalso, the airport's manager of operations, says the A concourse, where international travelers would be accommodated, can hold 500 passengers on its lower level or 1,000 if both levels are used.

When the Newfoundland flight landed, operations at Cape Air, which uses the A concourse's lower level, were shifted to B concourse.

United, which uses the upper level, would also shift to gates elsewhere in the airport if additional space were needed, airport officials said.

The number of passengers could escalate quickly. Of the 19 flights diverted in 2009 (last year's figures weren't immediately available) at least half were Boeing 757 or larger aircraft, Delbalso said, which can each carry 200 or more passengers.

If the decision were made to clear passengers through customs in Albany, they would probably be bused in groups to the agency's building east of the main terminal, where they would collect their luggage.

Afterward, they would be returned to the terminal to be screened at the TSA checkpoint before continuing their travel..

Planes can be diverted for a number of reasons, from bad weather to mechanical reasons or a seriously ill passenger.

In most cases, the plane is on its way again in an hour or two. But in cases severe enough to terminate the flight, passengers might have to be transferred to other flights or to buses if the destination airport is close enough, such as Kennedy or Newark.

"If we have an aircraft with a mechanical emergency and it wasn't going to go back out, we'd park it" near the customs building at Albany, said Delbalso.

Local customs officers are used to dealing with air passengers, handling occasional charter flights that go from Albany directly overseas, Wescott said.

No doubt some of the passengers who were stuck for hours on aircraft that had landed at New York City airports after the Dec. 26 blizzard may have wished they had gone instead to Albany.

The airport established a 90-minute rule five or six years ago, airport spokesman Doug Myers said, designed to make sure that passengers weren't marooned for hours on the tarmac.

Under the rule, airport operations staff will offer to take the plane back to a gate so passengers can return to the terminal.

Often, the airport throws a pizza party, he said.

Now, international passengers may soon be able to get the same treatment.